


you are the sun and i am just the planets

by fairytalelights



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: (except not really because they are in england), Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-06 22:03:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13420539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairytalelights/pseuds/fairytalelights
Summary: “I think this is really gonna be the year I find my soulmate, guys. I'm just gonna go around and touch as many soulmarks as I can until midnight. And no, Dan,” Phil holds up a finger as if he knows Dan is gonna say something, “I don't care about your stupid statistics monologue and that my soulmate might be on the other side of the world right now.”Dan just glowers at him, suddenly for some reason in a much worse mood than he was a few seconds ago.or, the one where soulmates meet on Valentine's Day, Dan and Phil just have a little trouble catching up.





	you are the sun and i am just the planets

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to [phandomficfests](https://phandomficfests.tumblr.com) for organizing this lovely challenge and thank you to Isa and Niki, who are the most wonderful betas and lovely humans!
> 
> Quick explanation: This is an alternate universe in which soulmates exist and the most important things regarding that should be explained in the story but just in case there are more questions, feel free to ask (either here or on [Tumblr](https://lookslikefairytale.tumblr.com))!

Soulmates meet on Valentine's Day.

Dan's mum has told him about this so often that by now it's an unquestionable fact, something that has always been this way and always will be.

As Dan grows older, he learns that that's nonsense of course. Soulmates can meet any day, at any given time. He could have walked past his soulmate on the street a thousand times already and never realized it.

Soulmates can meet, touch each other's marks and the weird, unrecognizable patterns on their wrists start to form into their soulmate's name. In principal it's all very clinical and scientific, but their society has made a stupid event out of only touching another person's soulmark on Valentine's Day.

Dan's friend Louise thinks it's wonderfully romantic. Dan isn't so sure.

He certainly doesn't think it's very romantic right now, walking into the school building and being confronted with pink and red hearts, balloons and glitter everywhere. He sighs, kicking a balloon away from him to avoid falling over. He hates Valentine's Day.

 

“So, anyone whose soulmate mark you're absolutely gonna touch tonight?” Louise asks, sliding up to his locker. She's wearing a pink frilly dress and is carrying around a heart-shaped purse instead of her usual school backpack. She looks entirely too cheerful this early in the morning.

“A good morning to you as well, Louise,” Dan sighs.

“Oh come on, last year you refused to touch anyone's mark except for mine, Zoe's and Tanya's and those you only touched because I forced you to do it.” She fixes her accusing gaze on him, reminding him so much of his mum that he immediately has to look away again.

The thing is, Dan knows she's right.

Everyone is allowed to go to their first Valentine's Day ceremony the year they turn fifteen.

In theory, it's supposed to be great and fascinating and keep you excited for coming back the following years if you don't find your soulmate the first time. Maybe Dan just did it wrong.

He sighs again. “I'm just not much for social events. Also a relationship seems like a lot of work. I need all my free-time to relax and play Mario Kart with-”

He doesn't finish his sentence because at that moment, his best friend Phil appears around the corner. He's also dressed fittingly, in a dark red shirt that's speckled with white hearts. For some reason, Dan can't find himself to be annoyed though. Phil just looks kind of good in red.

“Hi guys!” he greets them cheerfully.

Dan smiles at him. “Someone already attacked you with a glitter can,” he notes and absentmindedly brushes his fingers through Phil's hair, trying to get some of it out.

Phil just laughs. “No, yeah, that was my mum this morning. She told me to go all out. Because like, it's Valentine's Day and all.”

Dan's smile dims. Right. Phil is also one of those people who's annoyingly excited about Valentine's Day every year.

“I think this is really gonna be the year I find my soulmate, guys. I'm just gonna go around and touch as many soulmarks as I can until midnight. And no, Dan,” Phil holds up a finger as if he knows Dan is gonna say something, “I don't care about your stupid statistics monologue and that my soulmate might be on the other side of the world right now.”

Dan just glowers at him, suddenly for some reason in a much worse mood than he was a few seconds ago.

He prepares for a snarky reply, but at that moment they hear someone gasp, “Oh my God!” and turn around to find Zoe and Alfie, their school's resident power couple, staring at their wrists in exhilaration for a moment, then they embrace in a very movie-worthy kiss, after which Alfie swirls Zoe around for a bit. Dan can feel a headache coming on.

“I can't believe it!” Louise exclaims. “They could have at least waited until the official ceremony tonight.”

“Who cares,” Dan says dryly. “They could have also done this weeks ago in their bedroom in private. That way there would have also been no drama if it ended badly. Win-win.”

“Dan!” Louise chastises him. “You know it's not right to find out who your soulmate is on any other day. It's bad luck! People die!”

“People don't die,” Dan scoffs. “That's just a stupid rumour, started by corporations who make money out of selling stuff on Valentine's Day.”

“Well,” Phil says, making an appeasing hand gesture. “Let's all agree not to test that particular theory and just find our soulmates tonight, shall we?” He smiles at them one last time, grabs his books and makes his way towards the classroom, stumbling a bit on the way there, as usual.

For a moment, Dan imagines Phil meeting his soulmate tonight, kissing them in the same way that Alfie just kissed Zoe, swirling them around. The thought leaves a bad taste in his mouth.

 

Valentine's Day ceremonies are happening in big cities all around the world each year. Dan's family always drives up to Manchester, like all of his friends. Dan thinks that the probability of meeting your soulmate decreases even more if you see the same people every year, but what does he know.

“It's fate, Daniel,” his mum always says. “Your soulmate will find a way to you, whether we drive all the way up to London or save a few hours and stick with Manchester. You know, your father and I met in Manchester...”

After that, she always smiles at his dad in such a sappy way that Dan has to refrain from making a sarcastic comment.

“Also, it's just your second year, I'm sure you'll find someone that you haven't met before.”

“Yeah,” Dan answers. “I'm sure.” He's beginning to think that meeting someone new is exactly the thing he has issues with.

 

Upon arriving at the giant building the event is held in this year, his mum immediately drops him off at the minors section. “I really want you to meet someone nice this year, Daniel! I sure hope that it's soon... your dad and I were your age when we met, did I tell you?”

“Yes, mum, you've told me,” Dan tries to stop her before she launches her whole “finding your soulmate as young as possible is the only solution for lasting happiness”-speech, followed by her “how will you give me grandchildren when you're 25 if you haven't even found your soulmate by then”-speech.

Luckily for him, his dad waves her over to one of the tables he secured at the bonded parents' waiting area and Dan manages to escape with one last kiss to her cheek and a mumbled promise about at least trying to touch a few soulmarks tonight.

Dan sighs at his green wristband. At least when he's eighteen, he'll be able to get drunk at these things.

 

The minors section of the ceremony is smaller and not as lavishly decorated as the adult one. It's also filled with tons of wide-eyed fifteen-year-olds at their first bonding ceremony, some already starting to touch wrists left and right and Dan shudders.

He hates strangers touching him. Someone up there had obviously not quite thought this whole wrist thing through.

“Hi there,” a not terrible-looking guy suddenly appearing in front of him smiles, then pushes Dan's right sleeve up, and tries to touch his wrist. Without asking. Dan grits his teeth.

Before the guy can realize that he's left-handed and he's chosen the wrong arm, he pulls away, trying to find a corner where no one will bother him.

 

An hour later, he has drunk three glasses of diet coke and can feel it sloshing around in his belly. Most of his time was spent scrolling through his phone and hiding from Louise, who is, as always, the life of the party, politely searching for boys to touch their soulmarks.

Dan has also seen a few girls come up to her, Louise smiling politely at them and holding her wrist out to them as well.

He resists the urge to bury his head in his hands. He doesn't want to touch anyone's soulmark here. Every time he thinks, yes, that person looks great, he imagines having to awkwardly arrange a date with them, watch a film, make small-talk, be forced into spending the rest of his life with them. No, thanks.

At one point, he lets a girl touch his soulmark, partly because he's ninety percent sure his soulmate will be a guy, and partly because he needs a stranger to listen to his whole depressing “soulmates can break up like any other couple and everything the media tells you is a lie anyway”-ramblings without judging him too harshly. The girl is nice, but after a few minutes very eager to get away from him. Dan can't blame her.

He spots Louise making her way through the make-shift dancefloor, appearing to be searching for someone. That someone's probably him, which means he should hide again. He tries to sneak as subtly as possible away from the bar and towards the “lounge”, which just consists of a few tables and chairs thrown together.

Right as he thinks he's disappeared from Louise's field of vision and turns around to check if he's safe, someone bumps into him.

“Ow,” a familiar voice complains. Phil's standing in front of him, still wearing that stupid heart-print shirt, still looking like a vision. Dan risks a short glance towards his right wrist and can't help the small sigh of relief that escapes him when he sees the familiar pattern still there, just the same as it was this morning. For a moment, he wants to almost let himself imagine the possibility of Phil's pattern changing, but not in the horrible way he usually does, no, in the good way, the right way, the possibility that the name on Phil's wrist could say-

He forces that thought down, deep down. No use wallowing in things that will never happen. Dan hasn't allowed himself to do that before and he won't start now.

“Hi, sorry,” he smiles instead. “Are you having fun?”

Phil shrugs. “Everyone's kind of rude. And I don't want to bond with someone a year younger than me. Sure, in a few years no one is gonna care, but at the moment, trust me, there's a big difference. Don't you think?”

“Um, yeah, sure,” Dan answers, not really sure how to tell him that he doesn't really want to bond with anyone here, no matter their age. Except, maybe-

“Hi, sorry, may I please touch your soulmark?” a girl coming up right in front of Phil asks, ignoring Dan completely. Dan has to swallow heavily as he sees Phil light up with a smile and say, “Yes, of course,” already holding his arm out towards her.

Dan can't watch the whole thing, has to stare at the ceiling and tries to ignore that his eyes are starting to burn. It's probably just from looking directly into the lights.

Phil's still smiling when the girl walks away again, still bond-free, turning to Dan with a happy exclaim of, “Did you see, she actually asked very politely, that's what I'm talking about, don't you think-”

He blabbers on and Dan doesn't know how to name all of the emotions bubbling up his insides right now, so he settles on the only one he knows how to deal with. Anger.

“Oh my god, shut up!” Dan interrupts Phil, knowing even as he's doing it, that he's making a mistake, that this is not the way he's supposed to handle this. Somehow he can't make himself stop though.

“Don't you see that I don't fucking care about your stupid soulmark and whatever person you're gonna bond with, go and touch people somewhere else, for god's sake!”

Hurt flashes across Phil's face and for a moment he looks younger than usual, vulnerable. Dan immediately feels like he's gonna be sick, like someone ( _himself_ , a snarky reminder in his head says) has sliced his insides open with a knife.

He wants to take it back right away, but he doesn't know how to, doesn't have the right words that won't leave himself open and raw, so he just gapes at Phil for a moment too long, and then Phil turns around without another word and leaves.

 

Dan doesn't quite know how he ends up in the too-bright bathroom of this place, leaning against the cold tiles behind him, then slowly sliding down to bring his knees up to his chest. He just needs a break for a few seconds.

He didn't exactly have _fun_ at this thing last year, but at least he didn't feel this crippling fear that he's unlovable and will never be good enough to be anyone's soulmate, let alone- No. He's not gonna go down that particular thought spiral.

He's just gonna calm down in here for a few moments. The only thing he has to do in here is breathe. In, out. Easy.

But because fate apparently doesn't want him to have easy and Dan's heart has not already taken enough punches for one night, at that moment, Phil walks in.

He doesn't seem to see Dan at first, sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall in the corner, so he walks up to a sink, washes his hands and splashes cold water in his face.

Dan can see the reflection of Phil's face and his heart gives a miserable little sting as he notices that he looks sad and tired. He doesn't think he's ever hated himself more than in this moment, knowing he did something wrong, but having no idea how to apologize. He decides to try anyway.

“Phil,” he sighs softly. As expected, Phil startles, grabbing dramatically onto his chest.

“What the fuck, Dan, are you trying to kill me,” he says, but after a moment of hesitation he sits down next to him.

Dan admires him for being able to do that, to just be the one to come to Dan, even if he's the one who owes Phil an apology and he's the one who should be chasing after Phil, not the other way around. He guesses that's just the kind of person Phil is, though. A good one.

He feels kind of pathetic now, hiding here in the bathroom and – unsuccessfully – running from his problems.

“Not having fun?” Phil asks, after he's settled down. Dan almost wants to take the out Phil's clearly giving him here, not making him apologize. But he also sees the guarded way Phil still looks at him, so he has to say something, if he wants to or not. Phil might be kind, but he doesn't deserve Dan to take advantage of that.

“Phil,” he starts. “I'm sorry, I'm having a bad day and I let it out on you. You don't deserve to be treated like that. Don't let me get away with shit like this.”

Phil just shrugs. “It's okay. You shouldn't be having a bad day, though. It's the 14th. It should be the greatest day of the year.”

Dan just lets out a dry laugh. “Yeah, maybe next year.”

“Why are you having a bad day then?” Phil's voice is soft when he asks it, and Dan thinks he might spill every secret he's ever held close if it makes Phil keep talking to him in that voice.

He's quiet for a while, not quite knowing what to say. When did talking to Phil become so difficult?

“Did you always want to have a soulmate, growing up?” Dan asks then, not answering Phil's question.

Because Phil's lovely, he rolls with it, of course. “Yes, my mum always told me my soulmate would be made specifically for me, out of stardust and glitter and just a sprinkle of magic. I know it's stupid. But I still sometimes believe that's true, you know.”

Dan feels his eyes burn. “I was the exact opposite. It wasn't my mum's fault, she probably told me the same thing your mum told you. I just never quite believed it, you know? I still don't think I do. Sometimes I read those news articles about soulmate research, about clinical trials and stuff like that. Which part of the human genom is responsible, you know. Takes the magic out of it, I guess.”

Phil looks at him sadly. “You know, the magic only gets taken out of it, if you let it. All those scientific research and they never actually found out why humans have soulmates. That's just something everyone accepts. It's _magic_.”

Dan doesn't answer. He doesn't want to say that it's not magic, because if it was then fate would have not made him fall in love with someone he can never have, could never possibly be good enough for.

“Sometimes it's just hard to watch you be all excited and happy at the prospect of bonding.” Dan doesn't offer any further explanation, hoping and somehow not-hoping at the same time that Phil would understand anyway, hear what he isn't saying.

“Because you don't want to find your own soulmate yet?” Phil asks instead.

“Yeah. Because of that,” Dan sighs. He hopes it doesn't sound as sad as he feels.

They are quiet for a while.

“You know, I kind of just want to puke all over them whenever they try to touch my soulmark,” Dan says then, just to break the silence. He doesn't quite know why he lets it slip and he tries to chuckle with forced humour to cover up the raw feelings behind the sentence, but even to his own ears it sounds hollow.

“Me too,” Phil admits softly. “At least today.”

“What?” Dan knows it's rude, but he can't escape the strangled bark of laughter that escapes him anyway. “You just told me about how magical all of this is. You've been running around all evening, touching soulmarks and being the life of the party. I thought this would be, and I quote, 'the year you find your soulmate'.”

“Yeah,” Phil replies. “I still believe it's magic. But maybe not for everyone. Maybe not for me. I think I've made it up to something greater in my head than it actually is.”

Dan's heart breaks a little at his words. “No,” he whispers. “You can't give up.”

Phil looks up at him from where he's been picking at a loose thread on his jeans. Dan thinks this might be the first direct eye-contact they made during this conversation. So he just lets himself ramble, anything to keep Phil looking at him like that.

“Are you kidding me? You're like, the most romantic person I know. You said finding your soulmate is like _stardust_. If you've lost all hope of finding someone, then how should the rest of us ever manage?”

Phil doesn't answer. A weird sort of quiet settles between them, one that Dan has noticed before, but never allowed to linger. Now, he can't find it in him to break it, just stares at Phil, tries not to lose himself in his eyes, tries to stay anchored in the moment.

Phil seems as transfixed by the tension as he is though, because he hasn't moved an inch, hasn't broken away from Dan's gaze, hasn't done anything at all except move closer to Dan.

Dan can practically see the moment he makes the decision to talk, but even then it's not breaking the moment, he just whispers, “Dan, we never... why did we never...” and then he trails off.

Dan wishes he could place Phil's expression, could get any read at all on his emotions, because he's flying blind here, doesn't know what comes next, what he's supposed to say or do, so he just... stops. Stops breathing, stops feeling, stops worrying, stops thinking about anything except the cold floor he's sitting on, his hands pressed flat to the ground, almost as if he's readying himself to jump up and run away at any moment.

Maybe he is. The only thing he's aware of is his left hand, inching closer to Phil's right one. He's afraid to look up, afraid to somehow break the spell or lose his courage if he thinks about this too much, so he doesn't, he just moves his hand one last inch, and-

The door flies open. A group of guys stumbles in, talking and laughing in loud voices and bringing noise from the party, destroying the spell that had fallen over Dan for a moment there.

One of the guys from the group spots them, sitting alone in their little corner and stumbles towards them. The fact that there's no alcohol being sold in the minors' section clearly didn't stop him from bringing his own, judging by his smell and the way he shouts, “You guuuys, why aren't you having fuuuun,” at them.

He clumsily tries to grab both of their arms, punches his hands around somewhere, then pouts when nothing happens.

Neither Dan or Phil react, too shocked to actually do anything and just stare at the guy. Dan can feel his mouth actually dropping open at the rudest soulmark touching he had experienced so far.

“Well, don't think you'd be my type anyway,” the guy throws over his shoulder in their general direction, already retreating.

“Except, you know, I have a friend who might be interested in you,” he winks at Phil. “Find me later, if you want to meet him.”

The group of guys exit the bathroom, hollering loudly at their friend and behaving exactly like the sort of typical cliché teenage boys that Dan hates. He hates them and their entitled attitude and most of all, he hates the way the guy looked at Phil, like he wasn't the _best_ person in this entire world, like he was just a piece of meat to hand out to his friends.

“Go on, ask him who his friend is. If you want to find your soulmate so badly, here's your chance,” he snarks at Phil, knowing fully well that this is the second time tonight he lashed out at Phil for no reason at all. He's just angry and frustrated and he came so close earlier to letting Phil in, so close to getting hurt. He can't get hurt because of this stupid soulmate-bonding thing that he doesn't believe in anyway. He can't.

Dan hears Phil try to reply something, probably be nice and calm him down, but he jumps up and flees from the bathroom.

This time, Phil doesn't let him hide, though.

He's almost all the way across the dancefloor already when Phil finally catches up to him, slightly out of breath.

“Dan, stop!” Phil shouts and grabs his arm. “What's your problem? Why don't you want me to find my soulmate? You could have just said something, if you didn't want to-”

He seems to catch himself and starts over, with renewed anger.

“Is it so hard to imagine that someone could actually love me? That someone would actually _want_ to be my soulmate?” There is some bitterness in his tone that Dan can't place, but he doesn't care. He is angry.

“It isn't real, Phil,” Dan screams back. “Finding your soulmate isn't actual love, it's just forcing you to be with someone who won't even love you and doesn't know what your favourite colour is and the way you refuse to drink tea in the morning like a proper English boy and they won't know that you always let me win at Mario Kart to boost my ego and they won't care _enough_. Don't you get it? You deserve someone who knows you and who _loves_ you for it and not some stupid soulmate who-”

“Dan,” Phil whispers. He still hasn't let go of his arm and his touch is hot on Dan's skin.

“No,” Dan shakes his head. “You don't understand, you're too _good_ for them Phil, how can they possibly love you as much as-”

“No, Dan, look.” Phil sounds awed, as he points to Dan's wrist. His left one. Without him noticing, Phil's fingers had brushed Dan's soulmark. And right in front of his eyes, that weird, hated pattern on Dan's wrist turns into a delicate script spelling out a name. _Philip_.

“Do you want to-”, Phil asks carefully, holding out his own wrist. Dan feels like he's underwater, like he's in a slow and honey-sweet dream, but his hand finds Phil's arm anyway, like it's a magnet pulling him closer. He brushes over Phil's soulmark feather-soft, afraid of hurting him somehow, afraid that if he makes one false move, he will wake up from this dream.

Dan watches the way the pattern moves on Phil's wrist, forming the letters to spell out _Daniel_ and the only thing he can think is, _magic_ , _this is actual magic_. Whatever scientific explanation people have given for this process, they were all wrong. Because when Dan sees his own name start to take form on Phil's wrist, it's not clinical or rational. It's the most irrational, unreal, most exhilarating and wonderful thing that has ever happened to him.

Phil looks at him, still looking a bit weary, a tiny bit afraid and Dan can't have that. Slowly, he laces his fingers with Phil's and pulls his wrist up to his mouth, pressing a tiny kiss to the brand new soulmark there. Phil starts to smile as he does it, small at first, but then as bright as the sun, eyes sparkling at him, and Dan wants to make him smile like that for the rest of his life.

Because _this_ , he can finally admit it to himself now, this was always the reason why he didn't want some imaginary soulmate. Their smile could have never measured up to this one, right in front of him.

“Can I kiss you?” Phil asks, still grinning, confident now, and Dan wants to laugh, but it comes out as more of a sob.

“Yes, of course,” he gets out and then they are kissing and it feels like the world is coming apart around him, because this moment, this feeling, is everything that exists, nothing else has ever existed or will ever exist again, except for the feeling of Phil's lips on his.

“Take me home?” Dan whispers then, tilting his voice up just enough to sound slightly suggestive but not enough to make Phil think he wants to have sex with him immediately. But since Phil's his soulmate, Dan's sure he'll understand what he means.

“Don't wanna stay for the party?” Phil teases, his hands still on Dan's waist, applying slight pressure, as if he doesn't want to let Dan go, ever. Dan tries his hardest not to be too obvious how much he just wants to melt into the touch, but he's sure Phil knows anyway. Soulmates, and all.

“I actually don't care about all of the other people here. The whole evening, I just wanted to spend some time with you,” Dan confesses instead of actually answering Phil's question.

“Me too,” Phil whispers back. Then he takes Dan home.

 

(Years down the line, Dan has turned into that same annoying parent he always thought his mum to be, promising their worried kids that yes, their soulmate is out there and they are made out of stardust and glitter and just a sprinkle of magic. Phil always smiles at him when he says it.)

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you liked this, you can reblog the [fic post](http://lookslikefairytale.tumblr.com/post/170868440125/fic-title-you-are-the-sun-and-i-am-just-the), or leave kudos and comments here!
> 
> Title taken from "The Last Of The Real Ones" by Fall Out Boy.  
> (I'm here on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/likefairytale) and on [Tumblr](https://lookslikefairytale.tumblr.com), if you wanna say hi.)


End file.
